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Archives for May 2011

SEO: What’s working? What’s relevant? A Newport Interactive Marketers Q&A session

By Julie Woodside

At another successful Newport Interactive Marketers event, attendees got comfortable in a second floor meeting room at Christie’s as Eric Covino, of SeoBook.com and CreativeSignals.com, fielded questions from an audience of eager SEO info-seekers.

What did Newport Interactive Marketers learn about SEO?

SEO general tips

  • Titles: Be concise; don’t pack with modifiers
  • Content: Be focused, relevant, concise, engaging
  • Content booster:
    • Blog approximately 3 times per week
  • Put your links in the main body for your content, rather than in the side bar.
  • Keywords
  • Use SEO for Firefox to sort results by page rank
  • Invest in a quality design

On-Page optimization

  • Avoid salesy copy
  • Use tags to articulate what your site is about.
  • Great site for info on on-page optimization

Off-Page optimization

  • It’s what drives search, links, anchor text
  • Relevance is important- Google needs to understand relationship
    • Don’t be a link farm
    • Google’s ‘people’ know when you aren’t relevant
  • Link building is the most difficult aspect of SEO

Does video boost rankings?

SEO success recipe: Time + Money

  • Find your niche and look at similar sites
    • Are they brands?
    • What is their domain page rank strength?
  • Invest in design

Reputation management

Eric Covino stresses the importance of link building for SEO purposes: Great content is good, but without link building, you will not see the ranking results you want for your website.  Strong content, simple design, your character, and relevant link-building are the formula for successful SEO strategy.

Be sure to attend the next Newport Interactive Marketers event for great networking opportunities and valuable marketing information.

Multiple channel measurement and analytics: What works? OMMA Metrics panel

Everyday, we are exposed to products and brands from a multitude of channels.  Online and offline, emails, catalogs, billboards, and other communication channels cross our paths.

A brand must use these different channels to create brand loyalty and further consumption.

Q. How do consumers decide which channel to tune into?

A. By marketing incentives, which are geared toward driving consumers to buy into brands.

Q. How does a marketer decide which channel to use?

A. By using marketing analytics to study digital and traditional marketing modes.

Marketing analytics is a “must have” in today’s business world.

This OMMA Metrics panel presents how to create multichannel marketing analytics from pooling data from a variety of sources.

Moderator Michael Baker, President & CEO, DataXu (@DataXU)

Panelists

Eugene Becker, Director, Media Innovation Group (MIG)
Chris Brinkworth, CMO, TagMan
Luane Kohnke, SVP, Managing Director, Analytics & Accountability, R/GA
Theresa LaMontagne, Managing Director of Analytics and Insights, MEC North America
Jodi McDermott, Senior Director Product Management, comScore, Inc.

Mixing traditional media and digital channels

  • Audience measurement vs web analytics = who is my audience vs. what’s happening today = needs to be blended
  • Purchase cycle will define engagement metrics
  • Need to be strategic about your business goals, not just tag everything

Data tips

  • Data is only as good as what you get out of it, whether it’s real-time data or not, but there’s a greater demand for real-time
  • Have to look at tools you aren’t using in addition to which tools/tactics you are currently using
  • Need to capture and store data for later or have a storehouse to return to when you see emerging trends

Data collection services

  • New opportunities! Full-service agencies are no longer just the keepers of data
  • Open up demand for different types of services: data management, project resource management, data analytics
  • Provide strategic insights, driving clients’ business forward
  • Advise how to allocate among various channel opportunities, plan and advise clients with research and target market trends
  • Analytics insights and ideas help differentiate agencies & agency services
  • The ability of the agency to provide context to analytics puts them a step ahead of pure analytics-driven shops

Optimized media and creative fields need to work together

  • Learning agenda needs to be in the DNA
  • Tying creative and actionable analytics together
  • Actionable analysis requires understanding media and decision-making. Can’t provide useful data unless you understand how it’ll be used

Mixed marketing models are extremely powerful and here to stay.  To truly understand the value of multichannels, look at competitive data and come to a conclusion as to how to mix the creative and technical aspects of marketing to create the most effective campaign.